Fez 2

[Joewintergreen]

Man, I couldn't be more with Fish on this one. It's easy to say "pfft, don't let the haters get you down, man" but he really shouldn't have to deal with the amount of absurdly vitriolic shit he gets on a daily basis. And the alternative to dealing with it is getting the fuck away from it, so that's what he's doing. He has the luxury of having enough money now to decide to throw in the towel and I think that is a totally reasonable and understandable choice when faced with this kind of bullshit.

 

I mean, I make video games because it's what I love to do. If thousands of people regularly made it their business to shit all over what I do and make me feel like I and my work are worthless despite my efforts to resist that, why would I keep doing it? I don't think I would. 

[colinp]

I can. Phil's been at the focal point of a parabolic mirror of internet rage for a long period. There is no way to dismiss that as insignificant over time. Even if no individual instance feels like it's getting to you and you feel fine, over time the effect builds up. It's not the unpleasantness in the moment, it's the erosive force of it over time. A boss of mine used to bully me. I thought he was a shallow twat who regularly exercised bad judgement, so laughed it off every time, but after three years of it realised it had actually been actually wearing me down by imperceptible degrees. Now imagine that, but instead of coming from one neatly isolated source, it continually comes from random strangers, often basing their attacks on partial or misquoted words you said. That'd be enough to shake anyone's faith in humanity and their professional environment.

When celebrities from any field let their personalities show and they're a bit weird, nowadays I automatically understand it as an inevitable byproduct of the amount of attention they receive and that's demanded from them. We are not designed for and are not very good at adapting to that kind of pressure. That combined with Phil's rage are an especially bad combination, but I don't think any of us would handle it well or be unscathed.

Going by most people talking about him, this is the paragraph where I have to put a mealy mouthed qualifier about the things Phil's said being unjustified, too harsh, not classy, etc. Fuck it though: I have nothing but sympathy for the man. Any bit of hatred people have had to deal with from him is orders of magnitude smaller than the collective heap of shit they've served up to him. He once said "Gamers are the worst fucking people", and a load of them seem hell bent on proving it.

Wasn't Chris being facetious?

Anyway, I agree with your post entirely. Nothing but love and respect for Phil. Really disgusted and disappointed with the internets reaction. Glad fellow thumbs have some sense and empathy.

[melmer]

I bought fez off the back of watching the indie game movie. witnessing his trials and tribulations, I really felt like I needed to buy the game as payment for baring his soul on camera. Also his passion completely sold me on the game, I can't remember the last time I had been as excited to buy and start a game... And finish it one one sitting

I like the guy, I followed him on twitter. I don't understand where all the hate comes from. Just glossing over the comments section on the polytron site earlier today, what's wrong with these fucking vile people.

[Justin Leego]

Psychological projection?

 

I'm just gonna go ahead and project that onto the writhing masses if you all don't mind.

[dmarlett]

When did we become the children from Lord of the Flies?  People are taking way too much pleasure stabbing at a guy they never met and don't often think about.

[Nachimir]

Wasn't Chris being facetious?

 

Ah, that would make sense

 

I guess I read it in the context of a lot of "Don't let the haters get to you" type tweets.

[dmarlett]

Wow.  I really stepped in it when I posted similar thoughts on a gaming forum.  I am now a brownnoser, fanboy, and lying shithead (when I said I haven't played Fez before).  I don't even recall excusing any of Fish's behavior.  It's a good thing that the rest of the internet isn't as opinionated, loud and impulsive as that Phil Fish guy. 

[colinp]

Wow.  I really stepped in it when I posted similar thoughts on a gaming forum.  I am now a brownnoser, fanboy, and lying shithead (when I said I haven't played Fez before).  I don't even recall excusing any of Fish's behavior.  It's a good thing that the rest of the internet isn't as opinionated, loud and impulsive as that Phil Fish guy. 

Hah, it really is depressing how much hatred and vitriol is being thrown at Phil.

[feelthedarkness]

Small minded people with no real power get pleasure in taking it where they can. They always seem to take aim at others low enough to take down, while point scoring within their own communities. 

[dmarlett]

The question is why did I even bother trying to surf the tide when I know the wave is made of diarrhea.  I should have expected to get dirty.

[Lu]

Fucked up situation. I saw the bit on Gametrailers where that Marcus Beer character does his little rant; what a pernicious little man. 

[elmuerte]

wait.. wtf just happened?!

[SiN]

 guess I read it in the context of a lot of "Don't let the haters get to you" type tweets.

 

Funny how these always come from anonymous comments and/or twitter users who are pretty much anonymous.

[Nappi]

Well this suck...

 

I admit that my very first reaction when I saw that Fez 2 was cancelled due to a grumpy old man rant (as some of the sites more or less put it) was that Fish was overreacting in a big way. Then I started to think how I would react if random people were giving me shit for my work (and public appearances) all the time, and quickly decided that I would most likely end up doing the exact same thing eventually.

 

Oh well, at least Marcus Beer got exposure.

[Henroid]

I'm glad that there's people coming around to, or stepping up in defense of, Phil Fish. Not entirely excusing his behavior, but not kicking him while he's down and recognizing a lot of what happens isn't fair.

 

I thought I was a crazy person when this all first went down.

[Gormongous]

Yeah, I stand by what I said on the last page, but it feels a lot less relevant in the face of all the bloodthirsty glee I'm seeing now.

[I_smell]

It's always a shame when someone who isn't built for a billion nasty comments accidentally makes it to a spot where they have to deal with it.

If only he had a couple of the right friends in his social circle, I bet he'd be totally fine.

 

Not in immeadiate reaction to this; but any form of EPIC GAMING RANTS make me fucking cringe. I love Idle Thumbs or GiantBomb where everything's super casual and knowledgable and jokey, so it feels so 90's and embarrassing when I hop over to a mainstream site like "Here's the Angry Video game Nerd to tell you why the Suckbox One is a GIANT PILE OF DOG-TURD!"

and don't talk shit about the people behind it-- I guess there's a billion things that make these sites awful so I'll stop the list at that.

 

The main thing is just I hope Phil gets whatever he needs to not explode over this stuff.

Probably hang out with Tommy Refenes, he used to be kind of a hair-trigger and seems a lot happier now.

[elmuerte]

Ok, I've more or less read up on the issue. I'm quite pissed off. Seriously?! Unproductive bitching internet retards aside, Marcus Beer, as somebody who puts himself into the Video game journalism business, should know better, should have some dignity. He clearly didn't understand the message of Indy Game the movie. I'll be happy to piss on his parade when he's going to plan one. I don't see a single reason for Phil Fish to apologize for anything, he's not a publisher shill, he's not a PR trained spokesperson. He's ... I think I'm preaching to the choir.

 

ugh.

[I_smell]

Putting these GameTrailers guys on the blacklist isn't gonna do anything, cos they've been this same thing for a decade and they just don't look at games from the same perspective we do.

There's a billion other channels with "Worst Game of the Year!" awards where anything relevant is just fuel for them to be a Youtube personality, so no amount of lecturing and boycotting is gonna turn em around.

 

Ya just gotta not watch it and be happy with the stuff you find on your own, like Idle Thumbs.

 

Of course yeah, preaching to the choir here, like ya said. As if any of us here is watching Annoyed Gamer rants every week.

[Lu]

Considering that Phil Fish is bipolar, you're right that he's one of his own worst enemies, Gormongous.

 

The amount of cruelty on display, and the glee with which they apply it is completely disgusting. This has been going on for years and I can't blame Fish at all for wanting to get out. I really hope he'll be alright.

 

I'm so done with this gamer rage bullshit. A waste of everyone's time and energy.

[gregbrown]

Not in immeadiate reaction to this; but any form of EPIC GAMING RANTS make me fucking cringe. I love Idle Thumbs or GiantBomb where everything's super casual and knowledgable and jokey, so it feels so 90's and embarrassing when I hop over to a mainstream site like "Here's the Angry Video game Nerd to tell you why the Suckbox One is a GIANT PILE OF DOG-TURD!"

and don't talk shit about the people behind it-- I guess there's a billion things that make these sites awful so I'll stop the list at that.

100% agree. All "Vlogs" Are Horrible.

[Gormongous]

I'm so done with this gamer rage bullshit. A waste of everyone's time and energy.

 

Yeah, I'm suddenly really sensitive to all the rage in gaming culture right now. Just now, I was checking the Paradox forums for updates to the Crusader Kings II mods I played and, in six hours since I last was there, four "fans" have posted "friendly" death threats should the modders "slack off" and fail to deliver the promised mod content before midnight. Sorry about all the scare quotes, but these are the people who like the game! It's nuts. I want to put the Internet in time-out.

[Chris]

Wasn't Chris being facetious?

Yes. The idea was there would be no way to take the quote literally given the near-unimaginably vicious nature of those comments.

[I_smell]

We can stop all of this from ever happening if we go back in time and kill Maddox.

[Twig]

I just wanna say I'm glad you guys are all cool people. U:

 

I browsed the GAF thread about this and it made me really sad. Reading this makes me happy again.